"Record" Continued
city by it like a flash. Such constant use has worn it down pretty well to a frazzle.
I made several balks in the thing by weaving bad material into it. At several places I ruined the texture of the fabric by using too much selfishness in the woof. More of brotherly love and less of the partisan spirit would have improved it greatly at several places. There are too many hard threads of pride, egotism, ambition and worldly aspirations in the whole bolt, warp and woof. There is not enough of the grace of God, humility, forgiveness, prayerfulness, patience, love, joy, cheerfulness, forbearance, self-sacrifice and generosity in any part of it. At some places the whole bolt for yards on a stretch is made, warp and woof, of prejudice, bigotry, hatred, sectarianism, intolerance and a desire to break down and destroy "the other party."
There are several yards of such worthless stuff in the bolt at one place where I was working against David Lipscomb. To be sure I might say, by way of apology, if not to my justification, that David's record right along there is worse than mine, but where is the good of saying it? Will his faults atone for my sins? Can I go to heaven on his meanness? Can a merchant induce you to buy a yard of worthless calico by showing you two yards of meaner stuff from another bolt? Such a course would be as the foolishness of trying to patch the seat of your breeches by sewing a hole over the rent. No, brethren, I will be honest about it. All those faults in my record are inexcusable, and they seriously damage the whole bolt. I am heartily ashamed of them, but they cannot be remedied now. I have therefore resolved to throw away the whole thing and rely upon the grace of God and the help of the brethren rather than the consistency of my record, for salvation. "By the grace of God I am what I am."
"I count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." I don't want to go to heaven with my record wrapped about me as if I gloried in "mine own righteousness," when I can clothe myself in the glorious and shining "righteousness which is of God by faith."
The ATTITUDE of F. D. Srygley, gospel preacher and writer in 1890, is sincerely commended to all in 1967.